Tabloid Format Conquers NYC! On June 26, 1919, in Manhattan, a new type of American newspaper hit the stands. The ILLUSTRATED DAILY NEWS, soon renamed the DAILY NEWS, offered New Yorkers a more compact paper, designed to be read on the subway. It featured large photographs with screaming headlines, sensational local news coverage, outrageous contests, comic strips, and more -- all aimed at attracting a mass audience, many of whom could barely read. The DAILY NEWS was a huge success. By 1924, it became the most widely read paper in America, with a circulation of 750,000. By 1926, the daily circulation exceeded a million. Magazines also took off in the 1920s. In a basement apartment in Greenwich Village, Dewitt and Lila Wallace started THE READER'S DIGEST, which featured condensed articles. Henry Luce and Britton Hadden launched TIME magazine that summarized weekly news. Hoping to appeal to stylish, sophisticated city dwellers, magazine publishers started VOGUE, VANITY FAIR, THE SMART SET, and THE NEW YORKER. Businessmen started to depend on FORTUNE and BUSINESS WEEK. During the 20s, Manhattan also secured its place as a book-publishing giant. In one decade, 18 new publishers arrived on the scene, including Simon and Schuster and Random House. The concept of popular "best sellers" was born, fueled by the creation of the Book-of-the-Month Club, which sold books by mail. In 1932, paperback books in "pocket size" format appeared, which like the DAILY NEWS, were easy to read while on the subway. In a few years, the number of books published each year in the U.S. doubled. The new volume of books boosted the popularity of book review publications, such as the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW.
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